Obamacare Is Big Government Corporatism, Not Socialism

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Ladies and gentlemen, socialism was never the goal of the Affordable Care Act.  I know it’s a great thing to grandstand about, and it’s a great commercial endeavor to say this was all about socialized medicine and what have you.  What this was about was getting more people to pay more corporations, large, unbelievably behemoth-sized large corporations with skin in the medical services industry game.  This is about forcing people into their storefronts.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  There is a big push apparently members of the Grand Old Party who take up residence in Mordor on the Potomac River are feeling their proverbial oats this week and seem to have actually stumbled into, thanks to President Obama’s mismanagement, seem to have stumbled into a situation wherein they may actually be able to, at least in the short run, put a dagger into the back of that monstrous beast called Obamacare.  What has happened is — we’ve been chronicling this since the day the first parts of the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, went into effect in late 2010.  Of course, there’s been a phase-in of it ever since.  We’ve been chronicling this and sticking with the storyline.  This is before and after Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts took his dagger out and stabbed the rest of us in the back with it, even though some of us knew this was coming, and proclaimed that Obamacare is a tax and therefore it was legal.  If you don’t want to buy an insurance policy, we’ve got a tax for you to pay there, buddy, or a fine rather.  Since you don’t pay the tax, you have to pay the fine.

The storyline has been that the thing is too large to implement.  Just imagine the delicious irony of this for just a moment.  I don’t want to talk about politics.  I don’t want to talk about Obama specifically.  I don’t want to talk about citizens of libtardia.  I just want to talk about first principles for just a moment.  You and I agree almost unilaterally, with near completely unanimity on this show, that the reason big government doesn’t work is because it’s out of scale.  We also agree that most things that are out of scale don’t work.  While we agree on that, we also have this built-in skepticism and suspicion that whenever government tries to do something that has already been demonstrate and proven that businesses or individuals can do and can do for profit, and have demonstrated an ability to do very well for profit, whenever government does it, it is always to the advantage of someone that didn’t really want to compete in that particular industry.  This is the great untold story of what you know as Obamacare.

It doesn’t have anything to do with what you’ve been told.  It doesn’t have anything to do with socialism.  I know you want to think that because it sells books, sells memberships to websites, sells radio shows and television shows.  It doesn’t have anything to do with socialism unless you approach socialism from the point of view that the socialist does what he does not for the advancement of humanity but for the advancement of humans that are close to the socialist.  We have almost universal agreement on what the basic principles that I laid out.

Is it not just the most delicious of all delicious ironies that the most hated and feared act of the big brother government, which was the takeover of the medical services industry, is a big government bridge too far?  The undertaking is so large, and one of the reasons it’s so large is because of government, because of the Mount Everest, the K2, the Mount McKinley of regulations and rules that anyone that dares to have the unmitigated gall to try to practice medicine must wade through on a daily basis.  Just savor this for just a moment here.  This probably isn’t what you were expecting to hear from yours truly today, but I think if you ponder it for a while, you will come around to my miniature celebration.  Just savor that for a moment.  The Affordable Care Act cannot be implemented because it’s too big for big government.

You are then looking at and watching some in real time, very tangible proof, right in front of your eyes, that big, expansive, overreaching government is incapable of discharging the duties that it purports to be able to discharge or take care of or execute on behalf of the poor, on behalf of the downtrodden, on behalf of the disadvantaged, on behalf of the preexisting condition masses out there.  I find that not only filled with delicious irony, but I also find it filled with a little bit of philosophical satisfaction.  You have evidence now and proof that their way is not the way.

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It is totally unexpected that the high priest of Obamacare, Obama himself, would have to send his minions out there to go, [mocking Obama] “Listen up. We’re not gonna be able to implement this on employers this year.  I’m in Africa, but Carney will fill you in on the details.”  Jay Carney couldn’t even fill in the details.  [mocking] “Uh, yeah, yeah, we’re gonna have to get back to you on that.”  Here’s the story from The Weekly Standard, and this is just one of many…

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All 45 Senate Republicans are calling for the implementation of Obamacare to be permanently delayed. The senators make their request in a letter to President Obama.

“We write to express concern that in your recent decision to delay implementation of the employer mandate . . .

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Mike:  I’m going to get into the constitutional aspect of this in just a moment.  Isn’t it grand that today we can actually celebrate that the Carriage Tax pamphlet is out there?  John Taylor of Caroline’s momentous, unequaled opposition to Congress’s blanket taxing power is now ready for you to read, to expand your knowledge of the issue.  So they write to express concern that since the employer part of the mandate can’t be implemented, that the entire law should then not be implemented.

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Further, while your action finally acknowledges some of the many burdens this law will place on job creators, we believe the rest of this law should be permanently delayed for everyone in order to avoid significant economic harm to American families,” the senators write.

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Mike:  Then they have a list of all the senators.  Just consider this for a moment.  Let’s get briefly into the constitutionality of this.  The Constitution says if you’re going to pass a tax, it has to be equally apportioned.  In other words, if you pas san income tax, then everyone is subject to the income tax.  Of course, Congress can write rules and regulations saying you’re all subject to it but some of you can get out of it if you do this, but it has to be equally apportioned.  An employer is a taxpayer in the same manner that an individual is a taxpayer.  If the Affordable Care Act was proclaimed by Chief Justice and chief backstabber, chief decepticon John Roberts as nothing more than a tax or the individual mandate is just a tax, if it actually is just a tax, then it has to apply equally.  It has to apply to everyone equally.  Again, Congress can provide relief in the regulation of the tax, but from the start it applies to everyone.

Constitutionally speaking, if we’re going to equally apportion it, you can’t pardon or say that one-third of the population can skip to the Lou my darling and not have to obey the taxing part or this part of the law while the other two-thirds, even though we’re not going to implement the law, you’re going to have to go ahead and comply.  Since they hoisted their own petard and called this thing a tax, and Chief Justice Roberts went along with it, they have to play by the fair rules of taxation, meaning they have to equally apportion this thing.  Since they can’t do it, if you’re going to let the employers off the hook, you have to let the employees off the hook.

The Senate Republicans are basically saying: Since you’re going to have to do that, why don’t you just scrap the whole thing, man?  You got your silly reelection.  You got your Obamacare passed.  Pelosi got to give her silly, nonsensical speech, [mocking Pelosi] “They have to pass the bill so we can find out what’s in it.”  You guys had a big, wild party and everyone enjoyed themselves.  Then the reality began to sink in that this was an unmitigated disaster that could not possibly work on the scale it was envisioned to work.  So, no hard feelings, just walk away from it.  The rest of the letter the senators wrote reads:

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In response to questions about the administration’s decision, your senior advisor Valerie Jarrett said, “We are listening,” while referring to the concerns of the business community over the onerous employer mandate that will result in fewer jobs and employees working fewer hours.  We have been listening as well, and as more employers have attempted to understand your burdensome requirements in the Affordable Care Act, the louder their outrage has become.

We are also listening to the views of the American people.  A recent Gallup poll from June of 2013 showed that a majority of Americans disapprove of the Affordable Care Act.  The same survey revealed that for every one person who believes they will be better off under the Affordable Care Act, two believe they will be worse off.  Opposition to your health law is growing, and it will continue to grow as more Americans realize that the law is built upon broken promises and will result in higher health care costs and more taxes.

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Mike:  Ladies and gentlemen, socialism was never the goal of the Affordable Care Act.  I know it’s a great thing to grandstand about, and it’s a great commercial endeavor to say this was all about socialized medicine and what have you.  What this was about was getting more people to pay more corporations, large, unbelievably behemoth-sized large corporations with skin in the medical services industry game.  This is about forcing people into their storefronts.  Again, why go through the hassle of having to market your products and services to people when you can just hire a lawyer to become a lobbyist and ask favors of government and let them do it for you?  Why spend $10 million on an advertising and marketing campaign when you can spend $200,000 on a couple campaign contributions and achieve the exact same thing, and build yourself a permanent, bulletproof monopoly?

There’s no law that says you have to buy a hamburger.  Just imagine if there was.  Do you think McDonald’s would not be out there lobbying for it?  [mocking] “There’s a law, you gotta buy it.  It’s lunchtime.  Forty percent of you have to buy burgers.  It’s the Affordable Burger Act.”  This was always about corporatism, never about socialism.  It was always about forcing people into the medical storefront and forcing them to pay for things they otherwise would not pay for, and at the same time providing relief to some of those entities that were not profiting as heavily or as mightily as they wanted to.  This is good news, folks.  Continuing with the letter the senators wrote:

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Under the individual mandate, the IRS, which is still under multiple investigations for unfairly targeting conservative groups, will play a central role in the implementation of the health care law in our country.  Last fall, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that nearly six million Americans, primarily in the middle class, will have to pay a tax under the individual mandate, which was two million more than previously estimated.   When the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, the average individual mandate tax will be nearly $1,200, which clearly contradicts your previous statement that the individual mandate “is absolutely not a tax increase.” [Mike: Gee, I wonder where that money goes.]

Mike Church Show Transcript – The Healthcare Debate Is Truly About Liberty

Further, families are facing significant increases in premiums.  Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an analysis of premiums and concluded that under your law some Americans will see their premiums “double or even triple,” which is the opposite of your promise that premiums will go down by $2,500 for American families.

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Mike:  By the way, if insurance premiums triple or double, ladies and gentlemen, whom would you say is the prime benefactor of that?  Who benefits from that, Obama, Pelosi, Menendez, Schumer?  Who benefits from that?  I don’t know, Mike, maybe the insurance companies.  Bingo!  Who do you think was behind this the entire time?

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Given the widely-held belief by the American people that the Affordable Care Act will not fulfill its promises and will result in higher costs for American families, we implore you to listen to the American people.  This law is unworkable and harmful to the economy and to American families, and your actions to delay the employer mandate are an acknowledgement of this fact.  While your recent action provides temporary relief for some, we believe that all Americans deserve permanent relief from this onerous law, so that we can adopt common-sense reforms that will actually lower costs and that Americans support.

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Mike:  I love how the Senate Republicans have to throw that last little piece in there.  [mocking] “You Democrats aren’t very good at fixing these big government programs and making them work for the American sheeple, but we have our own ideas on how to do that.”  Government never should have meddled in this to begin with.  It’s always: We kind of support the idea, we just think we can do it better because we’re going to do it differently.

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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